Fly By Night
by IWearOdango
Summary: Why the hell did youma always seem to materialize at parks and playgrounds in the middle of the night? Seriously, there had to be something stipulated in their contracts with the never-fail pattern they followed. She was officially done with the locale.


I don't know what this is; a snippet? A drabble? The beginning of a full story? Meh. We'll see. I saw it in a dream. It was pretty entertaining. Thought I'd get it down in writing and share it with my fellow fans, :)

Review, my lovelies? Maybe I'll continue it if any inspiration comes to me...  


* * *

Usagi was vaguely aware that she was going to have a very impressive bruise. Strike that. She was vaguely aware that she was going to _be_ a very impressive bruise. Fucking youma.

Rush of air. Thump. Crack. Crash. Underbrush. Usually, she kept her language in check. But fuck that.

"_Shit._"

Rei growled at the youma that had just thrown Usagi through the once pristine wickerwork fence that surrounded the park, torn between screaming to check on Usagi's state, and rushing the hulking daemon now between herself and Ami. Before she could do either, Usagi pulled herself back out of the darkened underbrush, bare upper arms littered with angry red scratches, white gloves shredded away over the palms, silver crystal glinting brightly in the moonlight from its setting over her sternum.

Why in the hell did youma _always_ seem to materialize at parks and playgrounds in the middle of the night? Seriously. There had to be something stipulated in their contracts, with the never-fail pattern they followed. Whatever the case, Usagi felt confident in speaking for all of her soldiers when she said that she was officially _done_ with the locale. Maybe a nice riverbed next time? Because being thrown into water was always preferable to trees. The tenser-bandage wound around her left wrist and disguised by the white of her long glove spoke to that more than anything else. It had been an eventful week so far; a double-team of spirit-like youma on Tuesday night just a block away from the opening of the trendy new tea house on Seventh Avenue, a troll-esque youma on Thursday at dusk behind the shipyard warehouses.

She spat a delicate mouthful of bloody saliva to her right, careful to pull back the long strands of blonde pigtail by her hip to keep them from the splashzone, before flicking her head at Ami in command. She tongued the tiny cut on the inside of her lip. Dammit. Not much time to play around with strategy, she lamented- this was just one of those nights where a quick and brutal course of action was what was needed.

The blue-haired soldier caught the minute signal and as quickly as she could, waved her right hand through the clear night air in front of her, summoning a heavy blanket of wet fog, and blasting it toward the battle terrain before her, watching it envelop and then obscure her leader and fellow soldiers. Minako and Makoto phased out of sight in the bluish haze to her left and the cloudy mass fell heavy to the ground, also blotting out Artemis' and Luna's positions. The youma roared, at a disadvantage.

"Shield and shock," Usagi commanded, just loud enough for her voice to carry to her soldiers and hopefully terse enough to not alert the youma of her intentions. She was betting on this one not being in the same IQ margin as Ami, but nevertheless, underestimating these bastards had earned her a scar or two in all her years of 'civil service' as she now playfully referred to it. "Venus, cover them too," she instructed quickly after, and she knew that Minako understood to shield Artemis and Luna.

Waiting an agonizing ten seconds before acting or calling out any further instructions, Usagi fidgeted uneasily in her boots. The waiting was always the worst part; she wouldn't act without knowing the girls were safe and shielded, but the lost time was more than enough for even the dumbest youma to get its shit together and light them up with fireballs or dripping acidic tendrils or something else perverse and painful.

The park ground around her hummed with the staticky thrum of the other girls' energy shields being called forth into place around them, and through the thick fog that slapped against her bare thighs, cold and wet, Usagi could just see the faintest outline of red light emanating from Rei's body. She swiped a gentle hand over the silver crystal at her breast, silently appealing to it for protection and when she felt the warm, cottony sway of silver-lighted energy pouring out of her pores and wrapping its way around her in a protective barrier, she sighed in relief, painful waiting time over at last.

The youma was stirring, stumbling through the dense fog-cover in jerking, erratic steps, long clawed arms swiping in wide arcs to try to slash any one of the girls it could reach. Ami watched its progress carefully through the blue lens of her visor, tiny electronic data reams streaming down the right side of the screen and informing her of its weak spots. The hematite-coloured armour it wore wouldn't be an easy break, that was certain. Only the junction between the shoulder joint and neck seemed doable. She stomp-clapped out a quick morse rhythm to alert Usagi of this.

Stomp-clap. Clap. Stomp-clap-stomp-clap. Stomp-clap-stomp. _N. E. C. K. _The dull footfalls of her boot and claps of her gloved hands resounded alongside the roars of the youma and Usagi yelled to Makoto on the final letter of the message, hand already resting on the grip of her weapon.

"Jupiter, impress me."

Though Usagi couldn't see her green-skirted soldier, she could hear the smirk in Makoto's voice as the other girl cried out, blasting the water-logged air with energy: "White volt conduction!"

The previously matte blue-grey fog lit up with an intense surge of white light, damp air sizzling audibly as the youma caught between all of the sailors received the shock of its short and ineffectual life. It howl-roared and went taut, convulsing and immobile, flopping on the concrete.

The electrical energy around Usagi danced over the protective silvery aura and stung slightly, but otherwise left the leader of the sailor scouts, as well as her soldiers, unharmed. As the attack petered out, the heavy fog evaporated away, leaving the terrain clear and revealing the fallen youma to Usagi.

She didn't bother to advance at all, merely unholstered the Hypnocta pistol from her thigh strap and fired two flawlessly aimed rounds into the chink in the armour of the youma, lunar acid leaking from the hollow-nosed bullets inside of the already fatal wound, gored purple flesh steaming as the creature finally died. It crystallized before shattering and then reverting to dust, leaving a small strip of canvas-like material, inscribed with purple ink kanji.

For good measure, Rei sent a withering glance at it, and the material set itself ablaze, burning away to nothing. Ah, the joys of pyrokinesis …

Usagi grinned, reholstering her gun and idly running a thumb over the tiny crescent moon etched on the side of the grip.

"Sweet."

"_Sweet_ indeed," Luna sniffed, padding forward, pale golden energy that Minako had protected her with finally fading. So too did the colourful auras of the rest of the soldiers and Artemis dissipate. Usagi heard the tone in Luna's voice and frowned.

"What _now_?" she whined, shoulders slumping and neck going loose to enhance her petulant slouch. "We're all fine, we toasted the youma…literally," she mused dryly, sending an approving wink at Makoto who grinned back in triumph, "and I took the shot. What's got your fur in a bunch this time?"

"The fact that you caught about ten feet of air before becoming intimately acquainted with a wicker fence and those people's vegetable garden before any of that took place," Luna huffed, inclining her dark indigo head toward the decimated section of fence in question and the darkened garden and shrubby underbrush filled with brambles. The reminder seemed to make the once forgotten pain flare up, and Usagi rubbed at her backside idly.

"Intimate for sure…Mamo's gonna _love_ that bruise…"

"If you had been more careful-"

"Luna," Ami appealed, soft voice reasonable as ever, "it's just as much our fault as Usagi's if she gets hurt. And to be fair, her aim was perfect. She's really mastered the Hypnocta pistol, just as you impressed upon her to do. She's put in a fair amount of target practice with the gun, as well as with the Stell-Arrow."

Usagi smirked, demonstrating this by slinging the pistol around her finger expertly before giving a mock blow at the tip of the barrel and then sliding it home to the gartered strap on her right thigh.

Luna rolled her red eyes. She would concede nothing, especially because Usagi would deem any concession fit reason to argue her way out of future exercises and weapons training. Being nearly twenty had done nothing to mature her blonde mistress. Usagi still wore her hair impractically long, chewed far too much bubble gum, stayed out too late dancing, entertained a new-found penchant for tequila shots and spent the majority of her off-duty time at Crown arcade or video-gaming at home in the apartment she and Mamoru shared. (Luna could go on with her list of transgressions, but would never point out that the hours of DDR and Wii sports actually constituted a work out.)

"Let's get out of here," Usagi instructed, and following her words, the girls each de-suited in turn, morphing back into civilian clothes. Luna noted approvingly that Usagi kept a sharp eye cast around her soldiers as they changed back, careful to remain transformed for battle until each of the girls was finished and no obvious threat had made itself known. Maybe a little more mature, then.

"Time?" Minako ventured, watching as the fluorescent street lights closest to them flickered and then ultimately shut down, signaling the approaching day as the dawn sky bled into a bright lavender.

"4:57," Ami yawned.

"You have to get back home to Mamoru?" Makoto wondered.

"No, he's got shift at the hospital anyway. Hang-over breakfast at Asaro's?" Usagi suggested, newly de-suited, rubbing idly at the place where the crescent moon on her forehead had been not a minute ago. She was dreading the day the little mark didn't fade along with her detransformation and became a permanent part of her appearance. More than anything else, that would signal the beginning of the Future.

Luna frowned. "It upsets me when you call it that, '_hangover breakfast_'."

Usagi shrugged. "It upsets me when you talk at me. We're even."

"Hang-over breakfast it is!" Rei confirmed, slinging an arm around Usagi's neck and dragging the blonde toward the park gate, Makoto and Minako laughing at Luna's rebuff in their wake. Ami offered the indigo cat a sympathetic smile, before stooping down and scooping up both Luna and Artemis so that they could ride, slung over her shoulders.

"At least she isn't _actually_ hung-over for this one," Ami whispered to the cats, conspiratorially, though the eyes she cast at her best friend's and leader's back were affectionate, not disapproving.

Artemis was careful to not laugh out loud, for fear of Luna and his schooled silence enabled Usagi's voice to carry, speaking of 'Turkish coffee' and 'cinnamon buns'...


End file.
